Solar eclipse draws crowds around the world

Friday 1 August 2008 09.01 EDT
First published on Friday 1 August 2008 09.01 EDT

Thousands of people watched in awe today as a total eclipse of the sun cast part of Siberia into complete darkness.

Some 15,000 amateur and professional astronomers gathered in Russia's third largest city, Novosibirsk, which was directly in the path of the spectacle caused by the moon passing between the sun and Earth.

The total eclipse began in Canada, tracked across Greenland and crept into Siberia shortly after 5pm (11am BST). An eerie silence descended on Novosibirsk as gusts of wind passed through the crowds. Birds stopped chirping and the temperature suddenly dropped, said a Reuters reporter.

"It's very dramatic and awe-inspiring when the darkness suddenly comes. That's why thousands of tourists go to see," Jay Pasachoff, a US professor who travelled to Novosibirsk for his 47th eclipse, told Reuters.

In Moscow, which saw a partial eclipse, passers-by stood trying to catch at a glimpse of the phenomenon. People used special sunglasses, computer discs and even beer bottles to watch it in the second city of St Petersburg.

In the remote Siberian settlement of Berezovaya Katun, near Russia's border with China, a large crowd of tourists from as far afield as France cheered as organisers released thousands of balloons into the darkened sky.

The eclipse passed last over China, where millions gathered to watch along the old Silk Road. Despite the ancient superstition that a solar eclipse was the unluckiest event in the sky, the mood was celebratory, with shouts and cheers greeting the "Olympic eclipse", as it was christened by state media ahead of the start of the games in Beijing next week.

"These days, we don't think it's bad or lucky, it's just natural," said Joy Yang, who joined hundreds of people on the stone city wall in Xi'an. Planeloads of eclipse watchers converged on Jiayuguan, in Gansu province, and in the hot deserts of Xinjiang.

A partial eclipse was visible from the whole of the UK and Ireland. In London, it began just after 9.30am, reaching its maximum point shortly after 10.15am when 12% of the sun was in shadow.

Further north, more of the sun was covered. In Lerwick, in the Shetland Isles, the moon obscured as much as 36% of the sun.